Originally posted by Pulcinella
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I think the 1988 Tallis Scholars booklet pre-dates the uncertainty - hence the "... two composers called William Cornysh, father and son" caveat on their webpage.
(Must check if Donald M mentions it in his Chapel Royal COTW.)
In Stephen Darlington's "The Door to Paradise" CD set (Presto refers to "WC the Elder"), Timothy Symons' notes say:
"The William Cornysh represented on this recording was probably not the Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal who dies in 1523 (mentioned in the letter to Wolsey quoted and referred to in a contemporary manuscript as "William Cornysh junior"), but the first informator choristarum at St. Peter's Abbey, Westminster, from 1479 to 1491. The latter, quite possibly the father of the former, enjoyed a prosperous life in Westminster after retiring from service at the Abbey and died in 1502."
The Sixteen Harry Christophers "Eton Choirbook Collection" refers to William Cornysh the elder (d. 1502) - mercifully the notes miss out junior.
And David Skinner (The Cardinall's Musick Cornysh) continues...
"It is also interesting to compare the compositional styles of Cornysh and Fayrfax, who are each represented by eight and six works respectively in the Eton Choir book, Fayrfax certainly appears to be one of the youngest composers represented in Eton; Salve Regina his only complete composition to have survived in this source, is certainly an early work, and is stylistically far removed from anything else known by Fayrfax. The works by Cornysh in Eton, however, are all clearly from the pen of a mature composer (especially his famous Salve Regina and Ave Maria, mater Dei). Indeed, Cornysh's Magnificat is firmly rooted in the style of the Eton manuscript and,when compared with Fayrfax's works, would seem to come from a much earlier generation.
All this is not to suggest that William Cornysh junlor did not compose Latin church music, but that he is unlikely to be the Cornysh represented in the Eton Choirbook. One clue as to the true identity of this composer may lie in the content f the Caius Choirbook, an enormous manuscript which seems to have been produced at Arundel, Sussex, in the late 1520s, and presented by the then Master of Arundel College, Edward Higgons (d.1538), to the collegiate chapel of St Stephen in Westminster, where Higgons was a canon from 1517. The book contains works by five composers and its conttents dominated by the Masses and Magnficats of Robert Fayrfax (1464-1521) and Nicholas Ludlord (c. 1490-1557), the latter being verger and organist of St Stephen's Chapel from the mid 1520s.
Edmund Turges and Henry Prentes are represented with one Magnificat each, and William Pashe fares slightly better with the inclusion of his Mass Christus resurgens.
The fact that these men all have London and/or Westminster connections has been observed by others. However, it has gone unnoticed that, more rernarkably, they form a regular progression through successive generations of local composers. This is evident from their dates of admission to the Fraternity of St Nicholas (or the London Guild of Parish Clerks). The earliest composer in the choirbook is Edmund Turges, who joined the Fraternily in 1469.
...
Fayrfax and Prentes joined the Fraternity in 1502, Pasha in 1513, and finally Nicholas Ludford in 1521. The odd man out is William Cornysh 'junior', who never became a member of the Guild. However, the earlier William Cornysh, presumably the father, joined in 1480, conveniently filling the gap between Turges and Fayrfax (Cornysh's death in 1502 is recorded in the same fraternity's records)."
), based on the prose poems of Aloysius Bertrand).
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